1"Now you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say: You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD."
2"This is what the Lord GOD says: The enemy has said against you, 'Aha, even the ancient high places are ours now.'"
3"So prophesy and say: This is what the Lord GOD says: They have made you a waste. They have swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the property of the rest of the nations. You are talked about by gossips, and the people speak shamefully of you."
4"So, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the empty ruins and to the cities that are abandoned, which became plunder and a joke to the rest of the nations that are all around."
5"So this is what the Lord GOD says: In the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom. With glad hearts and with scornful minds they took my land for themselves, so they could drive out its people and plunder it."
6"So prophesy about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the insults of the nations."
7"So this is what the Lord GOD says: I have lifted up my hand and sworn: the nations around you will bear their own shame."
8"But you, mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home."
9"Look, I am for you. I will turn toward you, and you will be ploughed and sown."
10"I will make many people live on you, all the house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be lived in, and the ruins will be rebuilt."
11"I will multiply people and animals on you. They will grow and have young. I will settle you as you were before, and I will do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
12"Yes, I will cause people to walk on you, my people Israel. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance. Never again will you take their children from them."
13"This is what the Lord GOD says: People say to you, 'You are a land that eats up people, and you have taken the children of your nation.'"
14"So you will eat up people no more, and you will take the children of your nation no more, says the Lord GOD."
15"I will not let you hear the insults of the nations any more. You will not bear the mocking of the peoples any more, and you will not cause your nation to fall any more, says the Lord GOD."
16The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
17"Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they made it unclean by their way of life and by the things they did. To me their way was as unclean as a woman in her monthly bleeding."
18"So I poured out my fury on them, because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had made it filthy with their idols."
19"I scattered them among the nations, and they were spread through the countries. I judged them for their way of life and for the things they did."
20"When they came among the nations, wherever they went, they made my holy name unclean. For people said of them, 'These are the people of the LORD, and they have come out of his land.'"
21"But I cared for my holy name, which the house of Israel had made unclean among the nations, wherever they went."
22"So say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord GOD says: I am not doing this for your sake, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations, wherever you went."
23"I will make my great name holy again. It was made unclean among the nations, and you made it unclean among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I show myself holy in you before their eyes."
24"For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land."
25"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filth and from all your idols."
26"I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."
27"I will put my spirit within you, and make you walk in my rules. You will keep my laws and do them."
28"You will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God."
29"I will also save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not send famine on you."
30"I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the crops of the field, so that you will never again be shamed by famine among the nations."
31"Then you will remember your own evil ways, and the things you did that were not good. You will hate yourselves in your own eyes for your sins and for the disgusting things you did."
32"I am not doing this for your sake, says the Lord GOD. Know that well. Be ashamed and disgraced for your own ways, house of Israel."
33"This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day that I cleanse you from all your sins, I will make you live in the cities again, and the ruins will be rebuilt."
34"The empty land will be ploughed, instead of lying waste before the eyes of everyone who passed by."
35"And they will say, 'This land that was a waste has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were empty and ruined and broken down are now walled and full of people.'"
36"Then the nations left around you will know that I the LORD rebuild the ruined places and plant again what was a waste. I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it."
37"This is what the Lord GOD says: Once more I will let the house of Israel ask me to do this for them. I will make them as many as a flock of sheep."
38"Like the holy flock, like the flock in Jerusalem at her appointed feasts, so the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD."